


A Brother in Need

by Quillofthoth



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Self-Harm
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-21
Updated: 2020-06-21
Packaged: 2021-03-04 05:41:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,972
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24844726
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Quillofthoth/pseuds/Quillofthoth
Summary: Klaus gets to be the big brother.
Comments: 6
Kudos: 34





	A Brother in Need

**Author's Note:**

> This fan fiction takes place in an alternative world where season one happens….. up until the end of the world and the time travel. What happens isn’t important for plot wise. Klaus has moved in with Luther and Allison as it’s better than the streets. Allison has permanently lost her voice. Ben is still a ghost that only Klaus can see unless Klaus summons him. The other siblings aren’t important for this story.

_ “I think we’re alone now _

_ The beating of ours hearts is the only sound” _

The music rang in Klaus’s ears as he danced down the hallway. Blissfully listening to something other than the screams of the dead. He danced a little in his step. Singing along as he thought about what to eat for lunch. Yes, he actually ate lunch now. He took off his headphones “You should be proud of me Ben, look at how far I’ve come. I’m going to eat lunch without you even needing to bother me about it.” 

When Ben didn’t reply he looked around and found Ben staring at him with a look of horror. Klaus was taken aback “I don’t need to eat lunch if it upsets you that much.” 

Ben “Klaus, You have to help Luther, he’s doing things to himself.” 

Klaus realized they were standing outside of Luther’s room, and Ben, the little creep, must have poked his way through the wall while Klaus was jamming. Klaus still didn’t understand Ben’s horror. 

Klaus chuckled “The big guy probably needs some relief, Ben. Don’t think him and Allison have gotten around to it.”

Ben was glaring at his brother with the sort of anger that he rarely showed. Klaus was mildly wondering if he would punch him again. Klaus wondered if it would connect. He hadn’t quite figured that power out yet and it was still a rather random occurrence. 

“Luther is hurting himself. Now go stop him!” Ben ordered him. Klaus stared at him. A million thoughts going through his head. From ‘Luther would never do that’ to ‘ who made me his babysitter,’’ To ‘ why are you trying to control my life again.’ 

But what he finally ended up saying was ‘what?” 

Ben just pointed at the door. And Klaus walked over to it. Opening it quietly as his blood ran cold at what he saw. Luther was sitting on his bed in nothing but boxers. Which was strange enough. Klaus hadn’t seen him in anything but his whole coat and gloves get up since the morning he caught him with the girl. But more importantly was the blood covering him. He had a bloody knife sitting on one of his legs and a massive cut on his arms that he had his fingers inside of. He gritted his teeth in pain as he pulled them upwards. Ripping his skin off in a chunk. He had towels laid around him catching the blood pouring from him. 

Klaus stood for a second in shock. Until Luther took his blood covered hand out of his arm and picked up the knife from his leg. Moving it although to cut off the last line of skin connected to his body. Klaus snapped out of his shock “Luther!”

Luther looked up in surprise. Knife still about to cut. “Klaus?” He sounded utterly surprised at his existence. Klaus' mind raced through his medical training from Pogo. But there were other factors to consider, would Luther hurt himself farther? Would he hurt Klaus? He vividly remembered being choked and thrown across a room not too long ago. But Luther was bleeding badly and that had to have pressure put on it. So Klaus took a tentative step forward “Hey Luther, how’s things going?” That was he even saying? The guy was cutting himself open. Things were going BADLY. 

Luther looked down at himself and back at Klaus and back at himself and swore, seeming to realize what Klaus saw. He, thank anything holy, moved the knife away from his arm. “It’s not what it looks like.”

Klaus was pretty sure there was no way to mistake this. But he nodded. “Okay. Okay, yeah…. why don’t you tell me about it?” He took another step forward. Glancing at Ben who gave him an encouraging nod, seeming just as unsure of what to do as him for once. 

Luther looked at his arm “.....I’m….trying to fix myself.” But he placed the knife down on the bedside table, alongside medical supplies laid out there. 

Klaus nodded “Ah uh...Okay… um… let’s not do that.” 

Luther glared at him “I’m not a child Klaus, and I know what I’m doing.”

Klaus looked at the terrifying amount of blood leaving Luther and suddenly didn’t see Luther anymore. But Dave, Dave’s body in his arm. “Klaus!” Ben’s voice cut through to him. And he blinked back in the present. He swallowed “ What do you mean you're trying to fix yourself? You’re fine Luther.” 

Luther snorted. Arms wrapping around himself. Digging his fingernails into his arms, breaking through the skin and making lines of red there too. “I’m a monster….I’m not human. I’m revolting. I…. I can’t even look at myself in the mirror.” 

“Oh… Yeah. That.” Klaus said, edging over and sitting down next to him.

Luther glared at him “Yes. That.” 

Klaus “None of us care about that. Did someone say something? Diego? Or Allison?” He cursed himself after saying that. Allison couldn’t talk, idiot, and reminding Luther of another thing he blamed himself for was probably the world’s worst idea. He picks up a towel hesitating, there were times Luther seemed uncomfortable with Allison’s touch, and Klaus most certainly wasn’t Allison. But he was bleeding out, he needed pressure on those wounds like right now. 

Luther shakes his head. “They don’t need to…. I mean. Deigo does every chance he gets anyway. But they don’t need to ....” His fingernails dug into his arms a little deeper and the red lines swelled and began to trail down his arms. 

Klaus pushed the towel to his arm gently, and ignored Luther’s wince in pain. “Let’s get some pressure on that? Okay Captain?” 

Luther doesn’t stop him. But gives him a disapproving look. “I know what I’m doing.”

“Yeah. Okay, of course you do Cap.” Klaus said 

“I do.” Luther says. Seeming mostly unbothered by his bleeding out. Ben finally spoke although Klaus was the only one that could hear him. “You’re killing yourself!” 

Klaus was grateful Ben was dead right then. As he was pretty sure that was a bad thing to say to Luther. Luther was a delicate case. Luther had always felt it was his duty to take care of the others. And was barely tolerating Klaus stopping him from bleeding out right now. Because he didn’t let people take care of him. “ Why - what’s with this fixing yourself Cap?” 

Luther looked at his brother. “I thought… replacing some of the more mulatied skin with some of the less….might… fix things a little. My legs aren’t as bad as my torso...I thought I could do a skin graft.” 

Klaus looked at his brother. Really looked at him for the first time. The long hair, the leathered skin….The scars covering his body. His legs won’t as bad, he was right about that. The hair was still long and brown. The skin, a little off. But it didn’t scream overgrown monkey in quite the same way. But the scars were still there. “....This.. isn’t your first time trying this.” 

For the first time. Real shame leaked into Luther’s face, real pain as well. “....No… I tried a couple of times… on the moon.” Klaus tried not to show his horror too obviously. The scars told him that a couple of times was a complete lie. And the thought of his brother ripping himself apart and sewing himself back together thousands of miles away from any kind of medical care, and other people… it was a miracle he was alive. Although. Klaus wondered for the first time if Luther thought it was more a curse. Klaus understood that feeling. He had wondered why he always was revived after overdosing enough times. It felt like a curse often enough. 

Ben asked the question and Klaus echoed it for Luther “Why?”

Luther “....I Know…. Well, I thought, I should be grateful to Dad for saving my life right? But… I didn’t think that fixing myself…. that wasn’t ungrateful right? I was just trying to improve it a little… I wasn’t ungrateful.” 

Klaus looked at Luther. Whenever he thought they were past this, It came up again. Luther might have started to work through his abuse. But it always came back. The need to justify him. The need to somehow make his father’s sins his fault.

“Luther, you can scream curses at him and rip every portrait of him in this place up, and it would be completely his fault. Completely deserved.” 

Luther looked at Klaus. Then said “I should keep going with the surgery before I lose too much blood and pass out.” 

Ben spoke before Klaus could “If You let him continue cutting himself apart then I will kill you.”

“I wasn’t going to Ben!” Klaus said

Luther looked around “Ben’s here?...Oh. Of course Ben’s here.”

“Luther...let’s call it a day…..just snitch this up and not… do anything else like this today.”

“No, I should keep trying.” Luther said, he started to move away from Klaus. 

“Luther…..you have done this before..haven’t you? It didn’t work then, did it?...it’s not going to work this time.”

“..It..It might.”

“You don’t actually believe that.”

Luther snagged a little. Klaus hoped it was because his words were getting to him, and not the blood loss. 

Klaus pressed on the bleeding arm. “We… should… Get this sewn up, Cap.” 

Usually it would be their mother or Pogo that dealt with stuff like this… but as they were now dead… that left… well, Klaus. It wasn’t like he didn’t have any medical training. Pogo had taught all of them how to deal with basic injuries, knowledge he had used a few times on the streets and in Nam, but it was never Klaus’s skill area. He thought about calling Allison...but he was pretty sure that was the last person Luther wanted to see right now. Oh, Man. He wasn’t looking forward to having this talk with her. 

Klaus looked around for something to sew with. And thankfully there was needle and thread and medical alcohol with a clean cloth sitting next to Luther’s bed. He supposed he should be happy his brother had prepared before...doing whatever it was he was doing to himself. He reached for the supplies as Luther hadn’t responded to him yet. Silently cursing his shaking hands. How was he supposed to sew his brother up if his hands were shaking. 

Luther let out a noise. Somewhere between a sigh and a groan “You're disappointed with me.” 

Klaus “No, no, I’m not disappointed...I’m scared out of my mind, man. You can’t do this to yourself.” 

Klaus took a deep breath to steady his hands and then lifted the towel over his brother’s skin, and started to sew. Luther stayed still and didn’t fight him. Only said “You don’t need to do this.” 

Klaus didn’t answer him. Keeping his mouth shut for one. Just sewing him shut again and hoping that he wouldn’t pass out or anything. 

Klaus finished sewing him up, and mopped up the blood with a towel. He wrapped a cleaner towel around Luther’s arm again. Pausing, unsure what to do. Luther finally spoke again. “It’s… Science. I’m trying to fix myself.”

Klaus looked at him. “No….You’re not. You're trying to hurt yourself, Luther.” 

“No. I’m trying to fix myself. If I replace the skin, it might not….be..this ugly anymore.” Luther said to him, almost pleading. 

Klaus wasn’t sure what to do with his hands now, after he was done sewing and dealing with the blood. He doubted Luther wanted him to touch him. But he felt the need to hold his brother. He ended up continuing to put pressure on the arm. Knowing it wasn’t needed with the stitches. 

**Author's Note:**

> The idea for this came from an article from the Vulture. Quotes include Blackman saying “Luther would have tried to remove the skin, or patched it with other skin, but it didn’t work.” And Hopper “there were times on the moon when Luther thought about ending it all”  
> https://www.vulture.com/2019/02/the-umbrella-academy-luther-gorilla-body.html


End file.
